Chapter 26
AIDEN
“I don’t give a fuck about your precious daughter!”
I clenched my eyes shut, hearing Noah’s words in my head. Had I honestly kept Gia from this kind of love and affection all these years! I had kept her from the love of her father. A lump formed in my throat Fuck what had I done!
I blinked the tears away when I saw Arden heading this way after Gia was tucked in the bed. Her bed actually. He closed the door behind him and stopped in front of me. He looked at me, his brows dipping in concern.
“Are you hurting somewhere?”
“No.“Yes. But I knew he meant physically. That didn’t hurt, not now at least 7–uhm–do you have a quest room? If not, it’s not really a problem. Your couch looks very comfy” I shrugged, eyeing my potensial bed for the night.
“Come with me” He pressed a warm hand against my back and guided me to a room on the other side of the hall. I stepped in and did a quick scan Like every corner of this fortress of a penthouse, this room was just as immaculate. Not a speck of dust or dirt, so organized that it makes you. worried about touching even a thing
“You can stay here. And if you want to change anything, just let me know. I turned back to find Aiden standing a few feet behind me.
“Think you’ll be comfortable!” I offered a jerky nod. There was the slightest crease in his forehead before he nodded back. As soon as he was walking towards the door, something compelled nie to speak.
“Alden. My voice made him stop in his tracks. He spun around and his eyes roamed all over me as if I could possibly get hurt in just two seconds. Having found nothing wrong he looked up
*Tuh–Thank you. For everything The words came out almost jumbled. Was that all I wanted to say?
Aiden thrusted his hands in his trouser pockets and stood there. The look in his eyes made me feel small and exposed, like he could see right through me.
“You want to talk about it! Sharing helps. He asked, walking in a few steps.
“I don’t know what to say.” I mumbled sitting at the edge of the bed. My day had been a nightmare and I was disturbed on so many levels. 1 knew i wanted to share but didn’t know where to start from
Aiden sunk down beside me. “Exactly what’s on your mind right now.”
We both sat in absolute silence while I gathered my thoughts.
She say
saw Noah hitting me
There. I said it. The one thing that stood in front of every other thought in my mind. He inhaled sharply once the words sunk in.
“She was so scared, Aiden and she is just a baby! She is gonna remember this throughout her life. I sucked in a breath. “I have caused her this trauma. I’m the one responsible, Gia was mine to protect. And I failed.”
“All my life I had made only bad decisions. Keeping you and Gia from each other was probably the worst one.” I struggled to swallow the lump- forming in my throat. It’s difficult to share things on our mind, to speak of everything that torments us but for some reason I could open up to Aiden
“Earlier when I saw her room today and every time I see her with you, I regret everything I robbed her of a childhood filled with her father’s presence and affection and beautiful memories. How could I do that!” With every word I uttered, the feeling of guilt was stronger, uglier. My voice cracked but I had to get it off my chest. I needed to say everything
“Once she grows up a bit, she would blame me, wouldn’t she? It’s just had karma, you know. Serves me right for choosing a man like him. I feel like I deserved it”
I broke down into solis, ugly gasping sobs. It was all catching up to me, every feeling, all at once suffocating me. Hurt, anger, disappointment, I was too overwhelmed in tell the emotions apuri
I roughly wiped at my tears when I heard Anden curse under his breath. A burst of embarrassment filled my insides at the realization that I had broken down in front of him.
I jerked my head up attempting to look at his face past the tears, I had hoped to find annoyance. There was anger. There was rapid ticking in his jaw must des and he looked like he wanted to punch somente in the throat.
231 PM c d
Chapter 26
Aiden clenched his eyes shut, took a breath and this time when those warm brown eyes were on me they looked a lot calmer and in control. He held out his hand.
“Come here, Love” I sniffed, contemplating only for a second before I took him up on the offer. I scooted closer and he immediately wrapped his hand around my shoulder, pulling me Blush against his side.
I accepted the comfort, soaked it all in 1 was fighting back the fresh surge of tears. I tend to get more emotional whenever someone comforts me Aiden fingers rubbed down my arm and in was kind of grounding me
“Don’t ever say that.” He muttered, kissing the side of my head. Minutes passed while he held me like that
at me. I did not. Instead I stiffened in his hold. Aiden wasn’t having it though..
“Look at me. Freya” “Two fingers touched my chin and my face was nudged up till 1 was looking straight into the depth of those brown pools.
“You didn’t deserve to be with that scumbag You deserved none of what you endured
“You made mistakes, everyone does. And Gia could never blame you. She loves you way too much. And so do you. You protected her even if you think you didn’t.”
His face tightened with a certain emotion and the darkness that clouded his eyes was hard to misk.
“Not everyone protects their child like you did”
I couldn’t read much into what underlying meaning was there to his words. The storm in his eyes cleared the very next second as if he had blinked and chased it away.
beautiful memories”
“Besides, it’s never too late, Gia is still a child. There’s plenty of time to make be
Somewhere in my heart I knew that wasn’t entirely true. There were a few memories that cannot be recreated like when she first learned to walk. her first words, first day of kindergarten. These weren’t coming back and I had robbed Alden of these memories
But still I liked to believe his words. Guili was an ugly, ugly thing. And at the moment, I had a lot of it to suffer from. His words were making it a tad. bat lighter.
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